The entire world of business software has gone to the rental/subscription model.
I’m not a gamer, so have no insight there, but being a “forward” and consumer-focused industry, am surprised they haven’t done this much earlier
“I’m not a gamer, so have no insight there, but being a “forward” and consumer-focused industry, am surprised they haven’t done this much earlier”
You don’t have to be a gamer to be trapped into using for pay. It’s been in for years. Ever heard of iTunes, Napster, Spotify, Deezer, Pandora, Amazon, Apple, Tidal...? Or maybe a combination like films or general entertainment programming such as, in the United States, Cinemax, HBO, MGM+, Showtime, and Starz, but such services can also include those devoted to sports, as well as adult entertainment. And that’s where it really sticks out on a one for show payment. Ever watch “rassling,” boxing, or concert specials? You do it now if you use any of these. So it isn’t out of reach to find them trying to cash in on another highway. It’s up to the people to lead them away from their cash nirvana by not using the services. The ploit of Disney+ is a good example.
wy69
I've been a software developer since 1980. In the early years we built code and shared updates in isolation from business support. When I fixed a portability problem in the "zip" software central directory structure, the package suddenly appeared on 10 new platforms. It was a win for me because what came back helped on some other environments that I had to support. It was a good give-and-take world.
I'm coming up on 32 years with my current employer. Our business model is development/upgrade of software for paying contract customers. We use a variety of quality tools from other vendors. We often hammer them so hard that we find bugs the vendor missed in development. We pay for support and in most cases a bug report generates a fix inside of a week. It's a more professional way to do business. OS vendors e.g. Microsoft and Linux vendors (Red Hat, Ubuntu) provide ongoing security/bug fixes. When you pay them for support, it gets higher priority attention.
I'm not a gamer. I also don't watch TV...especially where monthly subscriptions are required. A streamed video game is all expense to the end user with very little value returned. I suspect driving the subscription model to hourly is not going to turn out well.